Afternoon Tea

The rain drizzled as I walked down the old path. My umbrella was tattered, but I couldn’t find the time to go and buy another. I liked it, anyway. It may not have been the brightest of umbrellas, but it was functional. Sure, it was old, but it worked just fine. I suppose I felt this way about most things. They weren’t new by any means, but they surely weren’t broken. I could still use them for a while. I didn’t see the sense in wasting what I had, especially because they were things that simply didn’t matter to me. I stopped walking when I heard footsteps behind me.

My friend Hannah approached me. “Jane, it’s lunchtime. You said you’d come with us this time.” She crossed her arms.

“You’re getting soaked. Maybe you should get an umbrella. I already told you, I’m meeting Cynthia and Agnes.”

Hannah scoffed. “I’m really beginning to doubt these ladies’ existence, Jane. When can I meet them? And you eat lunch with them every day! Can’t you come with us for one day, please?”

“Fine, but I’ll have to run it over with them. They get annoyed when I don’t tell them about changing plans.” I said, slightly irritated.

Hannah turned and walked inside, shivering. I was on our garden path. I loved our house. It was out in the country, but not too far. I could walk to town in about fifteen minutes. All you could see here was the house, trees, the dirt road, and the garden. The house was elevated on a concrete platform. The house itself was a light beige color, with bright white trim. It was tall, in a Victorian style. The windows all had triangular arches above them, adding to the look. The patio out back led to the garden. My grandparents bought the house many years ago. 

The forest was beyond the garden away. I admired its beauty every time I approached it. The garden path ended before the forest, but I had been there enough that a small dirt path had formed. I turned my back to the house and started to walk to the forest. 

When inside, the rain didn’t touch me at all. The treetops were dense and reached up high. I closed my umbrella and propped it against a tree near the edge of the forest. I already knew my way through here, so I began walking to the center of the forest. It was a very sizable area, yet I had been through every nook and cranny of the first half. I never dared adventure into the other half. It always frightened me, even just looking at it. So while I’d climbed every tree and sat under every branch, I’d never even stepped a foot into the other side of the forest. 

Just like every other time I came here, as I passed several trees, a charming but petite house came into view. Well, it used to be. The side panels had degraded, the windows were foggy and grimy, the door was splintered and creaky, the roof was mossy. It didn’t matter to me, though. It was perfect.

Tentatively, I opened the door with some effort. It creaked open after I pushed on it some. Careful not to disturb anything, I walked in. 

“Agnes? Cynthia? Anyone there?” I called into the darkness.

As soon as I spoke, the small chandelier on the ceiling lit up. The phonograph began playing old music- from the twenties. All of the candles lit, the old black and white television turned on with a silent movie. The kitchen sink began running and the dishes moved around in the sink. The inside of the house was very clean and in good shape. I looked at the kitchen table. A small set of tea cakes and teacups decorated the table. 

“Hello, Jane, dear!” A voice rang out in the house.

“Hello, Agnes,” I said, knowing who it was immediately. 

As if I had commanded her to, Agnes appeared by the sink. She had been washing the dishes the whole time. I walked over to her. It may not have appeared so to other people, but she was a ghost. 

Agnes turned to me. “Can you help me put these away? For some reason, my hands keep going right through them today. That doesn’t usually happen, I suppose. Is it raining?”

“Yes, it’s raining. Is that why?” I asked.

Agnes adjusted her apron. “Yes. Every time it rains it throws me off. Something about the gloomy weather. I’m really not sure. Well, would you like to have tea with us today?” She ruffled her blonde curly hair and smiled with her perfect teeth and red lipstick. 

I smiled. “Yes, that would be lovely. Where are the others?” I asked, looking around.

“That’s great! I made tea cakes, sandwiches, tea, and some other snacks in the cabinet. Cynthia’s reading in the sitting room. Janet’s in the bedroom, I think. I believe she’s organizing my closet again. Speaking of which, do you like my new dress?” Agnes began to babble, as she usually does.

“Yes, it’s very nice. I like the ruffles,” I said. I studied the dress. It was light pink, knee-length, with ruffles going up to the waistline. “Well, I think I’m gonna go talk to Cynthia.”

I turned from Agnes. I walked through the kitchen into the sitting room. On the sofa, Cynthia appeared. 

“Hello, Jane. How are you today?” 

“Oh, I’m quite good. And you?” I asked politely. Cynthia was a stickler for manners. You’d earn yourself a good chastising if you didn’t treat her with respect.

Cynthia let out a small smile. “I’m pretty good. The rain is disturbing the house. I liked the rain when I was alive. Too bad I can’t enjoy it now. I can barely pick up my book.”

“Yes, Agnes said the rain was throwing her off. Well, she wanted to have tea, I believe. Would you like to eat with us?”

“Yes, that would be nice. I’m quite hungry. I haven’t eaten since breakfast this morning. And well, it wasn’t much of a meal anyway. Janet tried to cook. Ugh.”

Janet was the last member of the house. She was frazzled sometimes, but she tried her best. She was a master at sewing. Not so much cooking, though. Agnes was the best cook I’d ever met, even if she wasn’t alive. Cynthia was the smartest out of all of them, constantly reading. I brought her as many books as I could get from my house. 

Cynthia floated to the kitchen and sat in a chair. Her brown hair barely touched her shoulders. She took off her round glasses and set them on the floral tablecloth. I walked to the hallway, to the last room.

A head poked out of the closet. “Hello, dear! Fancy a new dress?” 

Janet waved me over to the closet urgently. “Hurry! Hurry! I would grab you but it seems I can’t grab much today. Ah, well. I’ve been working on this for you for a while. I think you’ll like it.”She stepped out from the closet, wearing a fancy hat with a feather and a pink dress with far too many bows.

Janet showed me a lovely yellow ruffled dress. I took it from her and admired it. I touched the yellow satin sash acting as a bow and traced my fingers along with the ruffles. 

“Do you like it?” Janet asked, clasping her hands together in a hopeful way.

“I love it!” I shouted, hugging it close to my chest. 

Janet grinned. “Go try it on, then,” she said. “It should fit you just right.”

I returned to the bedroom after trying it on. As I walked, I felt the edge of the dressing brush against my knees. I tied the sash into a bow and looked at Janet.

“It fits perfectly! Why you look as pretty as a daisy,” Janet held her hands to her chest. “Now, didn’t you need anything?”

All four of us sat at the kitchen table, eating sandwiches and drinking tea. The ladies chatted about trivial things like how buttons look on clothes and such. I scarfed down the food. It was delicious, as always. 

I checked the time on my wristwatch. It was 2:01. I’d told Hannah earlier that I would meet with her at 2:00 for a late lunch.

“Uh, Janet, Cynthia, Agnes, thank you for having me, but I’m a bit late for another engagement. May I be excused?” I said, feeling rushed. 

“Of course, dear. Come back soon!” Agnes said.

Without another word, I stood up and briskly walked to the door and exited. As I left, the candles went out, the lights turned off, and the ladies disappeared. All signs of them had gone within seconds. All that remained was a plate filled with tea cakes. I ran back inside and grabbed the plate. Agnes wouldn’t mind.

I ran as quickly as I could out of the forest without dropping the plate. I grabbed my umbrella as I left the forest. My bag bounced against my hip, full of my previous clothes. I decided to leave my new dress. I dashed down the garden path. The rain had stopped, and it was quickly drying outside. The hot sun came out from behind the clouds was sweltering to me as I went inside. I tried to run up to my room, but Hannah was sitting at the table and stopped me.

“Uh, where do you think you’re going? You’re late for lunch, too.”

“I need to put some stuff away but then I’ll be ready, I swear,” I said, trying to walk upstairs.

“Where have you been?” Hannah asked impatiently.

“I was talking to Cynthia and Agnes about lunch.”

“For an hour? Okay, do these ladies even exist? And who is this ‘Janet’ that never wants to have lunch that you talk about?”

“They do exist. They’re my friends. No, you can’t meet them. And they’re long-winded. It takes a while to talk to them, okay?” I ran upstairs before she could say anything else. 

I placed the tea cakes on my desk and put my bag away. I went to my vanity, brushed my hair, and placed a few bejeweled bobby pins in it that Agnes had given me. I used some perfume that Janet had gifted me for my birthday a few years back and went back downstairs.

Hannah looked at me in confusion. “Wait a minute. Where’d you get that dress?” 

“I… I’ve always had it.”

She crossed her arms. “No, you haven’t. Where did you get it?”

“Fine. I bought it at the market.”

She scoffed. “No way you have enough money for something like that. Jane, We’re thirteen, we don’t have jobs. Now, where did you get it?”

“It was a gift. Now can we go to lunch?” I began to get irritated.

She sighed. “Fine. Okay, Mom has some lunch made at home. Do you want to go to my house?”

“Yes, that sounds good,” I said, and we walked out of the door.

Hannah stopped me on the path. “Hey, you wanna take a shortcut through the woods?” She asked, looking excited. “I have something I wanna show you.”

We strolled down the path, the same way I’d just come from. We entered the woods. Hannah seemed to know her way around it, as I do. The house came into view.

“That house. I’ve never gone inside, I don’t think anything’s in it. Well, that’s not what I wanted to show you, anyway.” Hannah passed the house. She entered the other side of the forest, the side I was too scared to go into. 

“Here. Look over there.” She said, pointing to a large shadow in the distance. I followed her to the other side despite my increasing worry.

The shadow came into view. It was another house, roughly the same size as the one I frequented.

“C’mon, let’s go in. I’ve been here before, don’t worry. I have something I think you’ll want to see.” She led me inside.

Inside, it was just a dark room. I couldn’t see much, but I assumed other rooms were branching off. 

“Delilah? Penelope?” Hannah called, similarly to the way I called Cynthia, Janet, and Agnes.

Candles lit, lights turned on. It was almost identical to how the other ladies appeared. I saw two women in the room, standing in front of Hannah, in similar attire to the other ladies as well. They greeted Hannah, calling her “dear” and “darling.” They approached me. 

“Who’s this, Hannah? She looks simply divine. This dress looks like the work of an old friend of mine.” The one called Delilah touched the fabric of my dress.

“Are these ladies ghosts?” I asked Hannah.

“Yes, we are, but I prefer to refer to myself as a holy spirit.” The other woman, Penelope, stepped forward. 

“You’re clearly not holy, Penelope. Hush.” Delilah cut her off.

Penelope scoffed. “Ah, well. Whatever you say. But I agree, this does look like Janet’s work. She was a wonderful seamstress.”

I grinned. “That’s funny, it is hers. Did she perhaps live with a woman named Agnes or Cynthia?” I asked.

Penelope looked shocked. “Why, yes. She did. Did you know them? Well, I suppose that’s not right. You look quite young. Well, maybe.”

“I do know them. In fact, there’s a house in this forest. Well, another one, I mean. Maybe you guys should check it out?”

“We can’t leave the house. We’re supposedly ‘haunting’ it, now.” Delilah interjected.

Hannah looked at me funny. “Why didn’t you ever tell me? Ah, I guess I didn’t tell you about this either.”

Penelope ignored her. “There is one way we could leave. You have to “un haunt the house, or kick us out, basically.”

“How?” I asked, curious.

“All you have to do is to bring across in here. I mean, usually, ghosts go against it and it takes effort to kick them out. But we’ll comply.” Delilah explained.

“Okay, I actually have something at home. I can run back now,” I said, eagerly.

“Yeah, Jane, how about you go back and I’ll wait here?” Hannah said. 

I left the house and ran back home along the path. I sprinted upstairs and grabbed my mom’s rosary beads off of her dresser. I rushed out of the house and back to the house in the woods.

“Will this work?” I asked, gasping for breath.

“Yes, that should be just fine.” Delilah patted my back.

“What do we need to do now?” Hannah asked eagerly.

“So you two ladies need to exit the house, come back in with the cross, hold it up, and say ‘evil spirits, leave this house!’ And we’ll just walk out. I think that’s how it works. I read it in an old book.” Penelope said.

Hannah and I followed their directions.

In unison, we said, “Evil spirits, leave this house!” And held up the cross.

Penelope and Delilah floated out of the door. 

Penelope waved her arms up. “It worked!” 

Delilah rolled her eyes at her. “Okay, okay. Calm down.”

We led them to the other house, and they entered. 

“There’s nothing here,” Hannah said.

I scoffed. “Listen. Cynthia! Janet! Agnes! Anyone home?”

The lights all flickered on, the candles lit themselves, and everything came to life as it did before. 

‘Hello, darling!” Janet called from the bedroom. 

Agnes was cooking something, Cynthia was reading, and Janet was doing who-knows-what. I walked in and led Delilah and Penelope in.

“I have someone for you guys to visit,” I called. “Some old friends, maybe?”